Ok, we're here in West Lafayette, where Alabama is about to tee off for the first round of the NCAA Men's Golf Championships here at Purdue.

If you like cool and a little windy, the weather is perfect. The temp is in the low 60s, there isn't a cloud is the sky, and the wind isn't overbearing. However, it will mess with golf balls.

The Tide will be on the last teams to tee off today, and is paired with UCLA and UAB. So far, the scores have been high, real high. For example, Mississippi State is just finishing up and as I write this is at +37.

The biggest reason is the rough, which was cut at about 3 1/2 inches, and could be up to 5 inches by Saturday. Said Alabama coach Jay Seawell on Monday: "They certainly aren't putting the gas in the mowers."

Many of the best teams, like Southern California, Georgia, Oklahoma State, Florida and Alabama, are in the afternoon session.

The Tide tess off on No. 10, so I'm going to check out the back 9 and then come back and give an update.

MID-DAY UPDATE

After checking out the back 9, if I tried to describe the course in one word it would an inappropriate one for this forum and land me in some hot water. So I’ll use one from a scorekeeper who plays the course on a semi-regular basis.

“Diabolical.”

The Kampen Course at the University of Purdue is beyond brutal, which is reflected in the scores – even though the weather is almost perfect. They didn’t kid around with the rough, and in places it’s easier to hit out of the sand. There’s also a second level that’s at least a foot thick, so anyone who lands in it is looking at a bogey or double-bogey if they’re fortunate. The fairways are long and narrow and the greens pretty slick. A lot of puts aren’t falling.

The scorekeeper on the 12th hole, which is a long, downhill par 4 with the pin placed in the front left and protected by a bunker, said he hasn’t written down a 3 all day. Three of Alabama’s five players scored 5s.

I watched Mathew Hughes a little bit and he’s struggling to keep the ball in the fairways, which has helped lead to bogeys on five of the first six holes. Mark Harrell had a nice birdie on 13, the first par-3 the Tide saw since they teed off on No. 10, but midway though the back 9 Alabama was at +7.

Now for the good news.

The front nine plays a lot shorter, and the teams off to a good start in the afternoon session started on the first hole. Also, the wind, although still unpredictable, is dying down. The leading score among teams that have already finished is Kent State’s +13. That probably won’t hold up, but anything close to that will probably be a good score.

The University of Alabama shot a disappointing 21-over par Wednesday afternoon in the first round of the NCAA Men’s Golf Championships at Purdue University, putting it in a tie for 12th place.
The Crimson Tide came out sluggish, starting on the difficult back nine of the Kampen Course and scored +16 on its first nine holes of the four-day tournament. UCLA, which was paired with Alabama and UAB, shot +9 to tie rival Southern California for the tournament lead, one stroke ahead of Oklahoma State.
Junior Matthew Swan’s +3 75 lead the Tide, which tied him for 23rd overall. Swan was followed by Michael Thompson (+4), Mark Harrell and Joseph Sykora (+7), and Matt Hughes (+18).
The 30-team field will be cut in half following Friday’s third round. Alabama will be one of the first teams off the first tee Thursday starting at 7:47 a.m. (6:47 a.m. Tuscaloosa time).

It’s Day 2 of the NCAA Men’s Golf Championships and the University of Alabama team had a quick turnaround from the opening round.
As the Crimson Tide tees off just before 8 a.m. (7 a.m. in Tuscaloosa, the tournament in being played in the part of Indiana that doesn’t observe daylight savings), it’s in the low 50s, sunny and with no wind. The temperature is expected to reach the upper 70s today, which might speed up the greens some in the afternoon.
Some notes from Day 1:
- Alabama had 11 birdies, of which all but two came on the front nine.
- All of the players got a little extra practice in after the first round, especially on the putting green.
- In addition to family, the Tide does have a handful of fans here.
- Statistically, the hardest five holes Wednesday were 9, 18, 11, 5, and 12. Here’s how the Tide fared on those holes.
Hole Length Par Field Alabama
9 481 4 +0.72 +3
18 484 4 +0.71 +5
11 483 4 +0.64 +1
5 230 3 +0.62 +3
12 477 4 +0.60 +2

The long par 4s are doing the most damage.

The University of Alabama is off to a much better start in the second round of the NCAA Men’s Golf Championships, although it hasn’t resulted in a climb up the standings yet.
Led by Matt Hughes, who posted a tournament-high 90 Wednesday, the Crimson Tide made the turn at 1-over-par for a tournament total +22.
In comparison, Alabama was +16 after its first nine holes on the Kampen Course at Purdue University on Wednesday, although it was the more difficult back nine.
Michael Thompson was 1-under Thursday morning, putting him in the top 20 of the individual scores. Mark Harrell was at even par, Mathew Swan was +3, and Joseph Sykora was +4.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. | The University of Alabama improved on its disappointing start at the NCAA Men’s Golf Championships at Purdue University, but failed to gain ground on the leaders during Thursday’s second round.
Alabama followed a 1-over-par on the front nine with a shaky +8 on the final nine holes, which again took their toll on the Tide, for a team score of 297. Through two rounds, Alabama was +30.
Despite three double-bogeys, junior Matt Hughes posted the Crimson’s Tide’s best score, 1-under par on the difficult par-72 Kampen Course at the Birck Boliermaker Golf Complex.
He was followed by Mark Harrell (+1), Michael Thompson (+2), Matthew Swan (+7), and Joseph Sykora (+10). Thompson’s two-day total of 150 (+6) was the team’s top individual score, but was well off the pace set by Florida’s Bill Horschel, who with players still on the course Thursday afternoon led the tournament at 5 under.
Clemson shot 11-under on the front nine to take the tournament lead after Thursday’s morning session, ahead of first-round leaders UCLA (+13) and Southern California (+14).
Alabama’s tee time Friday will depend on the standings, with the top 15 teams playing in the morning. Only the top 15 teams after the third round advance to Saturday’s final fourth round.

Ok, sorry for not posting earlier today, but I’ve been having lots of fun trying to get over food poisoning, in addition to having an allergic reaction last night to something I took for it. Looks like both me, and the University of Alabama golf team, turned the corner this morning.
The big story here in West Lafayette, Ind., is the weather. Rain and possible thunderstorms are expected in the late afternoon and the wind started to pick up right around noon. Tournament leader Clemson came it at +14, while Southern California was +12, and UCLA +9.
Meanwhile, Alabama shot even par on the front nine, which so far is the low score of the day, and then survived the 11th hole, which had been killing the Crimson Tide this week, with just one bogey. As I write this Alabama is +1 for the day, and tied for seventh at +31, just seven strokes off the lead.
If the Crimson Tide can get through the brutal back nine on the Kampen Course without much damage, believe it or not Alabama will be back in the tournament.
Incidentally, although it probably won’t be a factor now, every team that was behind Alabama at the start of the day is in the afternoon session, and with the weather getting worse by the minute it will be difficult for any of them to move into the top 15 and make the cut.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. | The University of Alabama played its best round of the week Friday, but stumbled on the final three holes of the NCAA Men’s Golf Championships on the Kampen Course at Purdue University.
Overall, the Crimson Tide matched its second-round finish of +9 297, which all but guaranteed that it would survive the third-round cut at +39. However, Alabama shot even par on the front nine and headed into the final three holes at +31, which would have tied for fifth place.
Alabama’s +9 was still on the top team scores of the day, but only resulted in a small bump up the standings. Meanwhile, UCLA’s +10 was good enough to retake the lead at +24, by two strokes over Southern California and Clemson, and five strokes on Stanford.
The weather was a significant factor in the scoring as the wind dramatically increased during the day and rain was forecast for the late afternoon, when the lower half of the field might still be on the course.
The top 15 teams advance to Saturday’s final round. Alabama will likely tee off at 8:45 a.m., on the 10th hole.

Alabama will tee off at 11:45 due to third-round play being suspended due to the weather.


Some things that haven’t made my stories this week:
- Not only was there a nasty thunderstorm(s) that went though West Lafayette on Friday afternoon, but there was also a tornado warning. Players still on the course were evacuated to nearby Mackey Arena at 5:55 p.m. The golfers were allowed to leave at approximately 7:50 p.m. after a brief coaches meeting that followed the expiration of the warning.
- Here are two Mark Harrell quotes that didn’t make the Saturday edition:
“I wasn’t looking at the scoreboard, but you could just tell [we were playing well]. You look at the guy behind you and here a putt goes in, and you look at the guy in front of you and he’s playing pretty fast and has his head up.”
“We made too many doubles and too many triples, we turn those into bogeys and we’d be leading this tournament. The teams that are in the lead, they haven’t done that.”
- All the players’ parents are on-hand this week, but Harrell’s folks have really turned this into a trip to remember. By arriving early they were able to attend the Indianapolis 500, and they also went up to Chicago to see a game at Wrigley Field.
- For those who keep tack of such things, Alabama wore red-and-white stripped shirts on Wednesday, black shirts on Thursday, and the “red rally” shorts and white shirts on Thursday.
- FYI, it’ll be interesting to see if the storms slow the greens at all Saturday morning. However, if so it might benefit the teams in the lead, which tee off first.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. | It’s the final day of the NCAA Men’s Golf Championships and it’s been a long week. The volunteers are all in a good mood because they know it’s the last day, and the journalists are all a little surly because the only food available in the media room has been turkey – for four straight days.
The fourth round got off to a late start because the end of the third round was suspended due to weather (according to the Indianapolis Star, it’s believed that one tornado touched down and as many as 65,000 Indianapolis Power & Light customers lost electricity), and the final individual spot went to a three-way playoff with Virginia Tech’s Jurrian Van der Vaart winning on the fourth hole.
There was apparently a big debate among coaches Friday night about whether to have the cut to 15 teams when play was suspended at 5:55 p.m., or play it out this morning. Adding to it was the fact that some of the teams on the bubble still had to play the last few holes, which have been among the toughest on the on the course.
FYI, here were the toughest holes in the third round:
Hole Par Yards Average
18 4 484 +0.84
9 4 481 +0.74
5 3 230 +0.70
12 4 477 +0.64
17 3 206 +0.57
16 5 608 +0.38
The team that fell out of the top 15 and finished 16th was Auburn, which at +50 914 was one stroke behind Middle Tennessee State. The deciding hole was 18, where Tuscaloosa native Patton Kizzire and Steven Groover both had double-bogeys. Kizzire finished +13.
Alabama got its wish in that it’s warm and windy today, so expect high scores. There’s a chance of a storm blowing through, but probably not until the round is complete.
The Tide teed off on the back nine at approximately 11:45 a.m. (10:45 Tuscaloosa time) in 10th place and is already moving up the leaderboard (tied for seventh as of this writing). The tournament appears to be a three-team race between UCLA, Southern California and Clemson, but you never know with these things, and there’s still a lot of golf to be played.

WEST LAFAYETTE | The University of Alabama men’s golf team got what it wished for Saturday, windy conditions at the Kampen Course at Purdue University, but instead of contributing to a charge up the leaderboard the weather only contributed to a sub-par finish at the NCAA Championships.
With a brutal crosswind victimizing the field, the Crimson Tide had its worst round of the four-day tournament, shooting +27 315 to finish in 13th place.
Junior Matthew Swan led the team at +6, while seniors Michael Thompson, Mark Harrell and Joseph Sykora were all +7, and junior Matt Hughes was +10.
Alabama shot 309-297-297-315 for a 1218 total, +66. No team broke 300 Saturday.
The team championship went down to the last group on the last couple of holes, with UCLA (+42) barely holding on to edge Stanford by one stroke and Southern California by two.
UCLA’s Ken Chappell was the only player to finish the tournament under par at -2, despite shooting +4 Saturday. Thompson was UA’s top finisher at +16, to finish tied for 29th.